CROSS DOCKING

Good morning. Today we answer another question from one of our Daily Vitamin readers.

Good Afternoon. I have a question about a colloquial expression that someone has told me: 'cross docking'. The meaning is something like pass along a place/things without stopping. I can not see this expression in the dictionary. Could you please explain what is the real meaning. I'll be waiting to hear from you. Thanks in advance, Mertxe Toral.

Well Mertxe, I wasn't sure what the expression meant myself, so I looked it up on Google (www.google.com). In the search field, I typed "define: cross docking" and I got the following definitions.

http://www.oneway-solutions.com/glossary.aspx
The process of moving merchandise from the receiving dock to the shipping dock for shipping, without placing it first into storage locations.

http://bridgefieldgroup.com/bridgefieldgroup/glos2.htm
A logistics activity that attempts to reduce costs and total lead time by breaking down received items on the loading dock and immediately matching them with outgoing shipment requirements, instead of stocking the items in warehouse locations and returning to pick for orders at a later time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross_docking
A practice in logistics of unloading materials from an incoming semi-trailer truck or rail car and loading these materials in outbound trailers or rail cars, with little or no storage in between.

The "define: XX" option on Google is very useful, as you can see.

If you have any questions, please let me know, or post them in the forum section on our website.

Regards,